


In Retrospect

by reeby10



Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: Arguing, Farmer's Markets, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Making Up, Pinto de Mayo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 13:51:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10832586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10
Summary: In all honesty, Chris couldn’t remember what had started them fighting. It was probably something small and stupid, but it had quickly turned into a lot of cruel words. Chris hadn’t meant them outside of the heat of the moment, not really, but things spiraled out of control and here they were. Not talking. Avoiding each other.





	In Retrospect

**Author's Note:**

> Holy shit, you guys, I started this fic three times. Why is writing so hard?? (Also, I think I have a thing for Zach being a biphobic asshole. You should be glad I managed to talk myself out of having that in this fic lol)
> 
> Anyway. Happy Pinto de Mayo, fellow beans!! I <3 you all :) I'm sorry I couldn't get anything longer done in time, but here is my contribution to our most holy of days lol A special thank you to seepunkrun over on tumblr, from whom I nabbed the prompt "an arguing at the farmer's market." Man, I looked at so many pictures of the Silver Lake Farmers Market (a real thing! with papusas and horchata and everything!) for this...

When Chris woke up in the morning, he decided he had been avoiding the farmer’s market long enough. It was Saturday, and last he heard Zach was back in town so he’d probably be there, but Chris was tired of being afraid and hiding. They were both adults, they could get over this. Whether or not it was with their friendship, or any sort of relationship, intact was still to be seen.

He packed up his reusable bags and put on a baseball cap and sunglasses before heading out. There was not much worry about being recognized there, or at least not bothered by people recognizing him. It was one of the nice things about the relatively small Silver Lake Farmers Market: most of them were too hipstery to give a fuck.

It was already busy when he got there, but the noise and the press of people was actually kind of nice after spending most of the past week alone at home. His favorite vegetable stand was near the entrance, so he went ahead and stocked up on asparagus and zucchini there, then strawberries at the next one. Maybe he’d have Zoe over for brunch sometime to help him eat some of the veggies. He always managed to buy too much for just him, and while Wednesday would eat a lot of things, she turned her nose up at most vegetables.

He was just thinking about what he should get for an early lunch when he heard the voice he’d been dreading. He turned to see Zach standing at a booth across the way, apparently quite invested in a discussion about the chakra cleansing powers of certain crystals.

Chris couldn’t help staring, but it had been over two months since they last saw each other, so he thought he deserved the chance to take a moment. It hurt to see Zach there, smiling and laughing with someone that’s not him. Not that Zach was particularly interested in laughing with him last time.

In all honesty, Chris couldn’t remember what had started them fighting. It was probably something small and stupid, but it had quickly turned into a lot of cruel words. Chris hadn’t meant them outside of the heat of the moment, not really, but things spiraled out of control and here they were. Not talking. Avoiding each other.

He didn’t realize he’d been staring too long until Zach suddenly looked over and locked eyes with him. The other man’s face hardened immediately, and it almost broke Chris’s heart to see that look aimed at him.

“What are you doing here?” Zach asked, stalking across the way to come to a stop a few feet from Chris. His hands were clenched so tightly around his bags that his knuckles were white.

“I have as much right to be here as you do,” Chris replied mulishly, unwilling to budge even though everything in him just wanted to run away. “It’s not your own private farmer’s market, Zachary.”

Zach scoffed, but Chris could see the tension in his shoulders. “Well, you haven’t been coming around much lately. I thought maybe you’d just fucked off.”

“Oh, like you told me to last time?” Chris snapped, anger burning away all of his restraint. “Sorry, no can do, buddy. I’m not going to stop my life to make you happy or whatever the fuck it is you think you want from me.”

“What I want from you-”

Zach cut himself off, face red, and Chris realized that both of their voices had raised enough to catch attention from those around them. There was a girl at the next booth openly staring, an amused smile on her face, and someone at another booth was not so inconspicuously taking pictures with their phone. It might be time to take their argument somewhere a little more private.

“I’m not doing this with you out here,” Chris said, taking a deep, steadying breath. “Just… over here, ok?”

He turned and led the way between a couple of the tents, not watching to see if Zach followed. Either he would or he wouldn’t, and Chris was really trying not to stress himself out over it even more. Despite the way this conversation had started, he didn’t want to argue anymore. It was just hard not to, it seemed.

They stopped a little ways away from the main part of the market, partly hidden by a couple of trees. For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The fight seemed to have gone out of them, and Chris wasn’t sure whether to be thankful for that or not. Zach seemed to be feeling the same way.

“Fuck, I missed you,” Chris said before he could stop the words from coming out of his mouth. Shit, that was really not where he’d been planning for this to go.

Zach smiled, a sad little thing that made Chris’s heart hurt. “Me too.”

“We’re kind of a mess, aren’t we?” Chris asked, only a little bitterly.

“We really are,” Zach admitted, shaking his head. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly like he was meditating or something. Chris had seem him do that before during a rough day on set. “Do you think we can, I don’t know, fix that?”

“I hope so,” Chris said. He gave a wry smile. “You know, I don’t even know what we were fighting about in the first place.”

“Me either,” Zach replied, grinning a little too.

Chris couldn’t help but laugh, and a moment later Zach laughed as well. The last few months of avoidance was suddenly looking a lot stupider in retrospect. Trust them to fuck up a friendship so royally and not even remember why.

“Do you think we can be friends again?” Chris asked, dreading the answer a little. Zach could really hold a grudge when he wanted to. “Do you want to be friends again?”

“No.”

For a moment, it was like Chris’s heart stopped. That was _really_ not the answer he’d been hoping to hear. But he supposed that was Zach’s choice to make, and he’d just have to accept it. Even if he’d really rather not.

“I don’t just want to be friends,” Zach said, snapping Chris out of his thoughts. Chris stared, confused, and Zach smiled. “I always thought we could be more, you know? If you want.”

“Fuck yes,” Chris said immediately, flushing when Zach chuckled at the quickness of his answer. “We should definitely do that. Date, I mean.”

Zach leaned forward, slow enough for Chris to move away if he wanted to--which he emphatically did _not_ \--and kissed him. It was slow and soft and absolutely perfect, and Chris couldn’t help but pull Zach in for more. Not in his wildest dreams would he have thought this would be the outcome of his run in with Zach today.

A child screaming somewhere nearby made them break apart with a start, smiling sheepishly at each other. Chris looked around, thanking whichever deities were listening that a passerby or a pap hadn’t caught them in such a compromising position. He wasn’t exactly against coming out or being romantically connected to Zach, but he really didn’t want it to be like that.

“So, uh, you wanna grab some lunch and then go to my place?” Chris asked a little breathlessly.

Zach nodded and they started heading back to the market, hands brushing together as they went. “I’ve been craving papusas and horchata.”

“You are such a hipster shit,” Chris said fondly, earning a laugh and a punch in the shoulder from Zach. “What have I gotten myself into?”

**Author's Note:**

> Concrit welcome. If you like my fic, feel free to come hit me up [on tumblr](http://voldiebuns.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
